2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[F Gump]

1  I said mostly cap space. This doesn't mean 47 mil of space is needed. Detroit, San Antonio, OKC (before July) are all rebuilding teams and it might be smart for them to sell cap space for picks.

2  Anyone who takes him, will also most likely buy him out...

3  LaVine is a FA. If he wants to go he wants to go, nothing Chicago can do. They can of course do him a favour to play where he wants (and receive a minor compensation for it) or they can let him walk to a cap space team. Chicago doesn't have much leverage

Toronto got Achiuwa and ate Dragic contract to allow Lowry to go where he wanted to.

1 The starting problem is that it's not a 20M contract LAL would have to move, but rather RW at 47M. No one is within realistic reach of having that much room, and while LAL or someone else can finagle more room, someone has to have it to give it. You can see how limited cap room is to get max deals done this summer, as Keith Smith's projections are:

Cap Space Teams

1. Detroit Pistons - $31.4 million
   
2. Orlando Magic - $28.1 million
   
3. Indiana Pacers - $23.8 million
   
4. Portland Trail Blazers - $20.0 million
   
5. San Antonio Spurs - $17.6 million
   

Plus, even if someone has built some cap room to spend, it doesn't mean they will give it to you. They want to make their team better, not yours. That's the reality.

2. Your note that whoever would get him would waive him highlights the problem with the Lakers finding a taker for RW. If I trade for RW and "buy him out" (ie, pay him 47M to go away), how stupid is that, and what a waste of my 47M. That's nutty. And it's massive money that I'm flushing away for basically nothing. Sorry, but I just don't think it's gonna happen, because no owner is that stupid.

3 Yes, ZL can sign elsewhere. So have ZL go ahead, look at the list of who has money to spend, and how much, and let him pick a destination. (Oops, maybe CHI will look desirable after all!!) ... And re LAL in isolation, you ignore that what motivates a s-and-t is for the signing team to have a path to cap room, like MIA did with Lowry. In contrast, LAL, assuming they are keeping both LBJ and AD, has no way in the world to have max cap room for ZL, and there's really no way for them to to create it.

This idea of ZL to LAL feels like the same sort of nonsense when Trader Daryl in HOU was (reportedly, continually) on the cusp of getting Melo from NY in the same sort of deal. They only needed a 3rd team to be the one to absorb all the bad parts of the deal (in this case, you theorize DET as that sort of sucker), and lo-and-behold no one wanted to be that sucker. Go figure! IMO it would take a ginormous set of assets to entice some team to take RW into cap space, and LAL will decide they'll do better to simply keep RW until they run out the clock on his contract.

Looking at it another way, if I put on my fake GM hat, and ask what it would take for me to take RW contract from LAL into my cap space, I would want EVERY possible draft asset they have left right now, plus I send them back any trash contract I have. But I'd demand ALL their picks, plus swap options on picks they can't trade due to the rules. And then I still think it's probably too little. 47M is a huge amount of money.